Finding Snorkaks
by mysterious-ticking-noise
Summary: Neville/Luna, post-DH, very canon. Neville and Luna are too different. Or are they? My first fic. Chapter 5 up!
1. Blast From The Past

**Hi, everyone! I'm mysterious-ticking-noise. I'm a hardcore Neville/Luna shipper, so here's my fic contribution! Don't judge harshly, it's my first.**

1-Blast From the Past

It was late at night, or perhaps early in the morning. Luna Lovegood was fast asleep.

She slept in the house she had grown up in, the round black blemish on the hill by the woods, by Bottom Brook. Luna fished for Plimpies there. Very few people appreciated the Lovegood recipe for Plimpie soup.

After it had been blown up by an Entrumpet horn, the Lovegood house, pleasantly rounded and mind-bendingly colorful, had been rebuilt. Luna lived in it alone while her father was abroad searching for another imaginary creature, its existence begging to be proven.

She slept in a bed covered with a bright patchwork quilt. The headboard was curved slightly to fit the wall. Her hair, dirty blonde, was as long and as messy as it had been when she had been a schoolgirl at Hogwarts. Luna's famous, ever-surprised gray eyes were closed.

One arm hung over the side of her bed. On one finger was a diamond ring, glittering in the moonlight pouring through the open window, its shockingly yellow curtains flung open.

Luna was getting married in seven days. Six days, if night had given way to early morning. Her father had known her fiancée's grandfather, Newt Scamander. The grandson was Rolf, a handsome outdoorsy type, who Luna had met at a holiday party. Even though he didn't really show it, Luna's father Xenophilius had told her Newt had said Rolf was enamored of her strange beliefs and knack for honesty. They had gone out several times. Their dates were quiet, on his part. Rolf was a man of thought, not of action, while Luna was both. But he was a nice man, kind, and eloquent when he decided to utter words.

So Luna had said yes to him. All her friends, Hermione and Ron and Harry and Ginny, were all married with their own young children now. Her friends often invited her over to their homes while little James, Harry and Ginny's son, and adorable Rose, Ron and Hermione's daughter, played in the next room.

Luna was used to being an outcast, but seeing her friends happy, in love, and with growing families, made her feel very lonely, more so than when her sneakers were tied to ceilings or her possessions were hidden so long ago at Hogwarts.

She rolled over and murmured in her sleep. She was extremely nervous about her impending wedding. Everything was planned. There was nothing left to do but wait. Luna liked doing things. She liked being busy. That was one of the reasons why she'd so passionately declared existence of all things most thought imaginary.

She didn't really want to leave the house she'd grown up in. But Rolf, in one of his few long conversations with his bride-to-be, had been firm in that matter. He wanted their family to grow up in the Scamander manor with their famous menagerie; the whole family had been logical naturalists, after all.

Luna was still fast asleep, drifting between dream and nightmare. She was at her wedding, and she was ecstatic. A diadem like that of Rowena Ravenclaw's rested on her hair. She was going to Rolf, and he was smiling wide. She turned her head and scanned the crowd. Who was there, on her happiest day?

The pleasant fantasy became a nightmare, a terror. She saw a familiar face. It was not happy for her. In fact, this guest, seated at the very front, was crying. She didn't understand. Why wasn't her guest happy for her? A wedding is said to be a girl's happiest day.

She approached her upset guest, walked right into the row of seats. She opened her mouth to find an answer to why her guest was so miserable.

Then she recognized the face and her stomach turned. He spoke, but she heard nothing. She was panicking. Why was _he _here? She hadn't seen him in years.

He took her hand, she tried to pull away, but couldn't. He pulled her engagement ring (why was she still wearing it?) and crushed it like dust, and she screamed…

She sat up straight in her bed, her quilt flying off, hot tears mixing with sweat. Luna blinked in the moon's light, grabbing or her hand and feeling the glittering, glimmering ring. Still there. Good.

Luna was panting, suddenly cold. She pulled her quilt around her tightly. Now her feet were cold. Brilliant.

She huffed and stuck her feet in fluffy bright orange slippers. She was fully awake after her nightmare, the details of which were fading fast.

She ran a hand through her hair and sat on her bed. On the night table was a lamp, which had stopped working long ago. There was a photograph of her and her mother from even longer ago. Her mother hadn't been alive for more than a decade. She would never see Luna's wedding or her own grandchildren. The photo was beginning to fade around the edges, a sign of its extreme age.

There were two more pictures on the table. One was the photo Luna and Rolf had taken to enclose in wedding invitations. Their photo-selves were smiling and occasionally staring at each other contentedly.

The last picture was also beginning to fade with age and intense handling. It was a photo of the D.A., Dumbledore's Army, the secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group where Luna had first made friends. The D.A. was like her family; in real life, her family was just her and her dad; neither of her parents had had brothers or sisters, and her grandparents had died not long after her mother. All the members of the D.A. smiled and laughed and waved. She saw Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Hannah Abbott, Cho Chang, Marietta Edgecombe, the traitor, even Luna herself, with Dirigible Plums hanging from her ears, smiled pensively at her future self.

Luna smiled that same pensive smile as sweet memories flooded to her. Back then, Hermione and Ron fought, and Luna had never thought they'd end up married. Ginny had had many boyfriends, and it seemed that her childhood crush on Harry had been forgotten. And one more face stared out at her.

Neville. Neville Longbottom. A student who was an outcast, not in the same way Luna was. Neville was more clumsy and accident-prone than wildly strange. He was often jinxed and mocked, unconfident in everything except Herbology, or so she heard. Being in the D.A. had given him the confidence he needed, like it had brought Luna true friends.

She hadn't seen him in ages. Not since after the infamous Battle of Hogwarts, in which he'd proven his mettle and became a hero.

_Thump._

Luna snapped out of her reverie. What was that?

_Whump._

Someone, or something, was making these noises. A burglar?

She heard the stairs creak.

Luna dropped the picture on her quilt and grabbed her wand, which completed her collection of night table decorations. It was long and made of springy, almost yellow wood. She stood and held it tight, in a defensive stance she'd learned at a D.A. meeting in the secret Room of Requirement.

She heard loud footsteps and thought it better to surprise her assailant. She lay in her bed and kept her eyes open a sliver.

The door, painted with butterflies and flowers in neon-bright paint, quietly creaked open. She saw a tall figure enter her room and tip-toe near her.

"Luna?" asked an unfamiliar voice.

She pretended to sleep.

"Luna?" asked the voice a bit louder.

Luna sprang into action. "_Expelliarmus!_" she shouted.

A burst of red light illuminated the room and sent the unknown figure flying. With a resonating crash, he or she hit the wall.

"_Levicorpus!_" Luna shouted. Her burglar, or attacker, was suspended in midair.

"I surrender!" called whoever-it-was.

"I don't believe you," Luna retorted. She snatched a wand from the carpeted floor. "You'd better have a good reason for scaring me out of my mind!"

The stranger scoffed. "We both know you weren't scared. You aren't scared of anything."

"You don't know me. You'd better have a good reason for breaking and entering, then!"

"Oh, I do."

"Good," Luna said authoritatively. "_Lumos,_" she directed her wand.

Light burst into the brightly colored room. She waved her wand in the stranger's face. In shock, her mouth dropped open and her wand arm fell to her side, brightening the carpet.

"Neville?"

**Ooh, intriguing! The next chapter should be up soon. They all won't be this long, though. Thanks for reading!**

**M-T-N**


	2. Impossible

2- Impossible

Luna's old classmate, hanging upside down, waved at her. "Hi."

"Why are you in my house so late?" Luna hissed.

"Technically, it's 1 AM, so I'm in your house extremely early," Neville pointed out.

Luna sighed. "That's not the point, Neville."

"Could you let me down? The blood's rushing to my head."

"Why are you here?" Luna asked again, ignoring his request.

"It's a long story, Luna," was Neville's annoying answer.

"Well, it's 1 AM. I think we've got time. _Liberacorpus._"

Neville fell. "Ow!"

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Luna cried, taking his hand and pulling him up.

He didn't let go. He stared at the ring on her helping hand.

"So it's true," he whispered.

Luna pulled her hand away. "What's true?"

"You're getting married."

"Yeah. So?"

He flushed red. "Uh, no reason, no reason. Just curious."

He fixed his eyes on hers. "You haven't written. Or visited. Or anything," he said in a slightly accusatory way.

It was Luna's turn to flush. Bright pink crept up and colored her pale cheeks. "Oh. I-I'm sorry."

"I mean, I told you I had a job at Hogwarts. I'm the Herbology professor. I mean, Harry and everyone have said you visited them and their kids."

"I'm sorry. What else could I say?"

Silence.

"When are you getting married, Luna?"

"Six days."

"To who?"

"Rolf Scamander. The naturalist."

"Really?"

Luna turned an angry eye on him. "What do you mean 'really'? What did you expect?"

"Nothing! I just thought he was serious and silent, and you're loud and happy and imaginative. Not compatible, you know?" The words spilled out of Neville, like he had been holding them back for too long.

Luna narrowed her eyes. "I think I can make my own decisions, Neville. What are you, my father?"

"No! I'm your friend. Offering advice."

"It sounds like slander, not advice."

"I just said--! Never mind."

"Why are you here?" Luna asked for a third time.

Neville sighed. His face was red again. Luna stared at him with great intensity, wanting to break him, to make him say why he had broken into her house so early or late.

He said nothing. She stared at his face, burning red, at his brown eyes, which were looking anywhere but at her.

"I-I can't explain it."

"You will," Luna insisted.

"But I--you won't--it's just--!"

"What?! Whatever it is, I can take it. If I can fight with the D.A. in the Department of Mysteries, and all the nonsense at Hogwarts, during the Battle, I can take anything," Luna said. "Try me."

He took a step closer.

"You won't like--"

"Try me. I dare you." Luna asserted.

She wasn't sure how it happened, but suddenly, Neville had kissed her. Deeply.

She broke away quickly.

"What was that about?" she demanded.

"I told you that you wouldn't like it." He was smiling a little bit.

"What are you telling me?"

"I thought it was obvious! Ever since I met you, I've liked you. You're different, and beautiful, and kind, brave, strong…just perfect. In every way." The words were a waterfall of pent-up feelings, kept silent for years. When had she met Neville anyway? Fourth year? His fifth? That was ages ago. That was beyond ages ago.

Luna wouldn't have guessed. "You're a hypocrite!"

Neville was taken aback. "A what?"

"You say Rolf and I aren't compatible. We aren't either! You're sensible, I'm not, you're down-to-earth, I'm up in the clouds. We are impossible."

"Like snorkaks?" Neville grinned.

"Snorkaks are real," Luna explained.

He smiled wide. "That's my Luna."

She exploded. "I'm not _yours!_ See this?!" She dangled her sparkling ring in his face. "This means I'm someone else's. I'm Rolf's. It means you're too late. The slim chance we had is gone. You should have said something years ago."

She might have slapped him for the shocked look on his face. "I was afraid you'd reject me."

"I wouldn't have," she whispered, and kissed him.


	3. Feel and Felt

**Hi, everyone! Sorry I've been MIA, but it's midterm week…urgh. But here's chapter 3!**

3-Feel and Felt

When she pulled away, the slapped look became a blankly shocked look. "You…feel the same?"

"Felt. Feel. I don't know anymore," Luna said, frustrated.

"Is that why you never visited?"

"I wasn't sure. I didn't want to do anything…rash."

"I appreciate rashness," Neville said.

"I don't. Not when I'm engaged to someone else."

"Six days?"

"Yes."

"Do you love him?"

"Of course I--!" She stopped and thought.

"Not really. I mean, he's very pleasant, but…" she trailed off. She knew finishing wasn't necessary.

"What about…what about me?"

The question hung in thin air for a moment. Luna turned away from him.

She felt his hand on her shoulder, and his voice near her ear. "Well?"

She turned around and hugged him. "I think I do."

For a moment they merely stood there, holding each other, as if they wished this moment to go on forever.

"It's just…"

"Six days. I know."

"And everything's ready. The cake, the band, flowers, my dress…" Luna whispered. She pulled away and opened a closet door. Out spilled a lacy white dress, with a tiara and veil in a bag pinned to the bottom. "It's been a long time coming. I can't just break his heart. 'Hey, Rolf, guess what, my ex-classmate's in love with me, and I feel the same, so it's over.' That's cruel."

"But you just said you're not sure about him."

"I'm not. I'm sure about you, but I like him as a friend, at least, and I don't want to hurt him that way."

Neville was worried. "You have to tell him. You're going to tell him…right?"

"I don't know." Luna was exasperated with herself. She was going around in circles. Breaking off her engagement to Rolf wouldn't be easy. All the time everyone had spent on preparations would be wasted. All the food would expire, the flowers would wilt. Soon there would be nothing left but crumbs and wasted stems.

Was it a change she was willing to take?

Luna sat on her bed, on the soft quilt, and buried her head in her hands. The ring was cold against her forehead. She took it off and threw it across the room. She heard it land with a light, muffled thump.

She felt Neville sit next to her and put his arm around her, saying nothing. His words were communicated anyway.

**Bit short, I know. Hope you enjoyed anyway! I'm working on Chapter 6 now. I promise, more regular updates from now on…maybe. Thanks for reading!**

**M-T-N**


	4. Very Funny

**Hello again, I'm back with Chapter 4! See, I'm not MIA (Missing in Action)! I have completed Chapter 6 and am working on Chapter 7. Enjoy the next chapter of "Finding Snorkaks" starting…NOW!!**

4-Very Funny

Luna and Neville talked until the sun illuminated the hills and brightened the sky.

Luna had the hard job: Telling Rolf that the wedding was off, and hoping he didn't take it too badly.

She Apparated to the Scamander manor. Tight in her hand was the ring Rolf had given her. See, she told herself, you're not horrible. You're being nice. You're giving him his pretty ring back. Something had to equalize there, right?

She was so nervous she almost left. But then she thought of Neville, and sadly realized she'd be breaking a heart either way.

Rolf was in the library. He was sitting at a round table, studying some ancient textbook on dragons or something. His favorite pastime.

She sounded so sour when she thought of it that way. She had no right to be sour. But Rolf did. He would, at least, once their conversation was through.

Each step took an eternity. The long walk to Rolf's table was like a march to death row. Luna didn't like to make people unhappy, but today she had to.

He looked up, his serious face betraying no emotion. No surprise at her unplanned visit, yet no gladness of it either.

Compared to Neville, Rolf was a marble statue, silent and unapproachable.

She sat across from him. The hand which clutched the ring rested on the table.

"Good morning, Luna. This is…unexpected," he began.

"Yes, I know. But I have to talk to you, it's very important." Six days, six days, six days, Luna thought to herself. Six days was plenty of time. Six days allowed for food to go undelivered, for letters recalling invitations to get around.

Luna opened and closed her mouth several times. The right words refused to form and make themselves known. Unable to phrase everything properly, she merely laid the ring on the table and pushed it towards him.

There was a long moment of silence. Rolf stared at it, and then at her, and asked, "It doesn't fit?"

She breathed in deeply. "It fits fine. I just…don't…want it anymore."

"Are you breaking off our engagement, Luna?"

She nodded. And he chuckled.

"Very funny, Luna. April 1st, April Fool's day. Now I know why you wanted an April wedding!" Rolf though it was a joke, a prank. He was laughing.

"Rolf, it's not a joke. I'm serious. Really."

"You're quite dedicated, my dear. Very funny. I'll be telling that story for years." He refused to listen. And she had thought him a smart man.

She huffed out a good-bye and left the ring and her still snickering ex-fiancée.

To Luna it was over. She wasn't wearing the ring. She had told him it was over. It was his problem if he refused to listen.

"_His problem!_" she shouted to no one in particular as she went over hills to her curiously-shaped house.

Neville was waiting for her at the kitchen table, sipping a cup of tea.

"How'd he take it?" Neville asked immediately.

Angrily, Luna said, "He thought it was a joke! An April Fool's day joke! He didn't take it seriously at all."

"Maybe he just didn't want to take it seriously. I mean, six days from the wedding, hearing you say it's over between you? I would use any excuse I had."

She stared at him and smiled. "I guess so. Maybe he'll know it's not a joke when I don't show up."

"Tea?" he asked, gesturing to the table. She nodded and they sat down.

She took a sip. It was very sweet, just how she liked it.

"So you're definitely not marrying Rolf? You're not even showing up?"

Luna shook her head. "It's over between me and Rolf. I told him. I gave him the ring. Game over." She took another sip.

"What if he comes looking for you? Where will you go?"

"Anyplace with you," she said, grinning.

"So then where will we go?"

"I don't know. On the run, like Harry, Ron, and Hermione did years ago. Hide in forests. Sleep under the stars."

"Romantic."

"Shut up," she said playfully.

He finished his tea and laid the cup on the bright red table.

Neville said, "Could we ever come back? I like it here."

"Maybe after a few months, when they've searched thoroughly and think we won't come back."

"Good. It's a pretty house. Did you paint the flowers on the wall over there?"

She laughed. "Oh, yes, I remember that day. It was ages ago. I was seven. Mum was still alive. We were all covered in bright paint. All our clothes were ruined. I had to get dried paint cut out of my hair!" Fond memories of that rainy day spent brightening the house flooded back to her.

She took another sip of tea.

"Drink up," Neville urged, "Tea's good for troubled times."

"Troubled times? What do we know about troubled times?" Luna giggled. She finished it, and something that wasn't tea bumped her lip.

"Neville, you dropped something in here," she said exasperatedly. She pulled it out. It was a beautiful silver ring studded by shining, gray opals.

"They're the color of your eyes," Neville murmured.

"Ohh, it's beautiful. But why…"her eyes lit up. "Really?!"

"Luna, will you marry me?"

***Fangirl squeal* Squeeeee! See, this is why I like writing fanfic! So another cliffhanger, bwahahaha. Midterms are almost over, so I'm going to be working. Keep reading and reviewing!**

**M-T-N**


	5. Risk

**Hey, everyone! I've been totally AWOL, and I'm sorry. But I'm back with Chapter 5. I have NOT given up "Finding Snorkaks" and I intend to finish it. The drama begins in this chapter. I hope you enjoy!**

5- Risk

"Yes! Yes, of course!" Luna gushed happily, putting the wet ring on her finger. She admired it for a moment, and then sprang from her chair and threw her arms around her new fiancée, who eagerly returned the gesture.

For the six days before the wedding that would be missing an important guest, Neville and Luna packed supplies for their months hiding. They scoped out the forests surrounding the area, and found a tiny clearing where they could stay. It was a busy and happy time for them; they enjoyed being together and working together. Luna loved being busy again.

And finally, the day before the wedding arrived. Everything was packed. When dawn broke they would leave, before anyone would check on Luna.

There was silence in the tall rotund house. Neville was downstairs, making last-minute inventories. Luna was upstairs, sprawled on her bed, thinking.

It was very quiet. Luna was alone with her thoughts. She wondered how long it would be until she and Neville could return to this house. She wondered if Rolf had figured out she really wasn't marrying him.

Rolf. She hadn't spoken to him since that day she gave him her ring back. He hadn't called for her. He hadn't asked if it was still a joke.

What if he still didn't know?

She sat straight up in a flash, fingering the ring Neville gave her. What if he came looking? What if he thought Neville had kidnapped her? What if Ministry wizards would search for them and send Neville to Azkaban?

But deep from the recesses of her mind, a dark, secret thought sprang. _What if I'm not ready for this? _

Was she ready to throw her world into turmoil? Leave Rolf at the altar? Send him on a wild goose chase for a woman who loved someone else, who had accepted someone else's proposal? Live in the woods for who-knows-how-long until she could move back into her own house?

Blind panic had a secure grip on Luna. Rolf would surely find them. Rolf would hurt Neville over her. Rolf was stability in everything she had. Neville was risk, threat, a black pool of an unknown world she was blindly diving into. Without a thought. He loved her, had loved her since they were schoolkids. So what? Why throw everything away for someone she hadn't seen in years?

She thought of his voice, his touch, his chocolate-brown eyes, and felt herself melt. She didn't love Rolf, at least not as much as she loved Neville. He was her oxygen. But Rolf was a respirator, the next best thing, stable, always there. Solid. Secure.

She couldn't do this, she realized. She couldn't abandon Rolf, she couldn't go on the run for Neville. Stability. Safety. Constancy.

Long ago, Luna would have jumped at a chance at such an adventure. She would have thought it would be fun.

But now after a childhood fraught with tragedy, the death of her mother, the taunts for her oddity, the imprisonment at Malfoy Manor, alone in the dark, she needed a sense of stability.

Neville could not provide that.

If he had approached sooner, everything could be different.

But he hadn't. She'd let him believe that he had, and now she had to break his heart. Fortunately Rolf hadn't taken her seriously, and the wedding was still on.

She smiled thinly. Everything would go well. Everything was fine. A life of comfort and stability awaited her. All better. Her heart rate returned to normal.

She heard his footsteps on the stairs and it quickened again. Just in time.

She left her room and met him at the top of the stairs.

"Luna, everything's ready. What's wrong? You're so pale," Neville said. He put his hand to her face, feeling for a fever. "You can't get sick now."

She closed her eyes and appreciated this one last kind gesture. He'd never want to do anything nice for her again in five minutes.

"Neville…I have to talk to you. It's really important."

She took a deep breath. "Rolf still doesn't know I was serious about breaking up with him."

"He'll know soon enough."

"Don't interrupt," she said icily.

He looked adorably taken aback. She couldn't let him change her mind at the last minute.

"I-I'm afraid he'll think you kidnapped me or something. You could get arrested. Rolf is reasonably strong, he might hurt you."

"I can take care of myself…and you. What are you saying anyway?"

Luna was silent. She stared at him, eyes brimming with tears, and let the opal-studded ring fall into his open hand.

He stared at it for a long moment. His face was stoic, calm.

"What happened to you, Luna? You always used to be up for an adventure. You looked for Nargles in mistletoe bunches. Now…I don't even know."

Something broke in her. All the stress, all the pressure, all the agony of her decision, exploded.

"I grew up, Neville! Okay?! You know how hard the war was! You weren't the one locked up in a basement for months, ripped from everything you know! I know you were beat up, but it just wasn't the same. You're a risk to me! Running off? Hiding in woods? Someone's going to find us! I told you six days ago, you're too late!"

He stared at her open-mouthed. He closed his gape and said in a small voice, "Okay, then."

He dropped the ring onto the floor.

"Keep it. Early wedding present," he muttered.

"You don't have to give me a wedding present," she said softly.

"Yes, I do." He went to her and kissed her for a long moment. She didn't push him away.

Finally they broke apart.

A tear ran down Luna's face. "It's not going to change anything."

"I know," Neville whispered.

He turned and Disapparated. Luna ran to her room and fell onto her bed, crying bitterly.

**Gosh, this chapter…it was a toughie. What's next?? You have no idea. Neener neener. But I'll be back again. Regular updates? Uh, you can hope. ;)**

**M-T-N**


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